34 



From experiments made by Rose, some doubts have arisen as 

 to whether the decay is produced by the chemical action of oxy- 

 o-en ; this chemist was incHned to attribute this effect to the action 

 of Hving organisms contained in the air, and he found that by 

 passing the air through red-hot tubes, so as to destroy all organic 

 life, no effect of decay was produced in the meat exposed to it ; 

 he ascertained that these minute organisms could be arrested, 

 though not destroyed, by sifting the air through sponge or tubes 

 filled with asbestos — the tubes he employed were of various sub- 

 stances, and about the size of a pigeon's quill. His theory is 

 strono-ly in favor of the propagation of epidemic diseases by 

 minute living organisms floating in the air. There may be a dif- 

 ference of opinion in the case of decayed food, whether the 

 chanf^e-producing cause be minute organisms, or particles of mat- 

 ter in a state of incipient decay which readily is communicated 

 to the whole mass. 



He thought this a matter of considerable practical importance, 

 as the lives of many, and especially of Arctic voyagers, depended 

 in a great degree on the perfection of this preserving process. 

 It has been forcibly suggested and maintained by the London 

 Times, that the fate of Sir John Franklin and his party may have 

 been decided by the imperfect preservation of such articles of 



food. 



Mr. F. H. Storer remarked that the articles to be preserved 

 are boiled, not only to expel air, but to coagulate the ferment in 

 the meat ; in fact, the air cannot be fully expelled. He did not 

 think that Rose proves that the cause of decay resides in minute 

 livino- oro-anisms, rather than matters in a state of incipient decay. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam said, that at a previous meeting he had 

 stated that possibly the young specimens of Pomotis presented by 

 Mr. Thoreau were the P. ohesus of Girard. He had since then 

 examined Girard's original specimens, and found them to be 

 the same. The P. guttatus recently described in the Proceedings 

 of the 'Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia is identical 

 with P. obesics. Having teeth on the palatines, and consequently 

 belonging to the genus Bryttus, the proper name for the species 

 is B. ohesus (Putnam). He had also satisfied himself that the 

 Esox ornatus of Girard is the same as the B. fasciatus of Dekay. 



